APSIL -Chapter 138 No Discussing Academic Matters with Rebels

The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind it. Yet behind the oriole stood another hunter, silently waiting in the shadows.

Zhang Shou felt that this was probably the perfect summary of his rare two days of vacation.

He and Wang Jie had set up a trap, dragging Zhu Ying into the act as well. In the end, they lured out a hostile member of the imperial clan, Qiao Huaien, and had already confirmed that he was the one who sent the sword to threaten him.

However, just when he and Zhu Ying seemed to have come to Zhao Garden on a whim to spend the night, two remnants of the Linhai Camp rebellion had set their sights on him.

And behind those two fugitives, Lord Hua Qi had already laid out his own net.

Of course, the person who sacrificed the most in all this was Zhu Ying.

For most noble young ladies of this era, simply being invited out to enjoy the autumn scenery before marriage was already an impossible dream. And if it was a date with ulterior motives involved, the girls of later generations would probably call it utterly shameless.

Yet when Zhang Shou told Zhu Ying that the outing had another purpose, the young lady had agreed without hesitation.

Therefore, seeing the anxious expression on Zhu Ying’s face now, Zhang Shou couldn’t help but laugh.

“Of course I’m fine. Not even a scratch.”

“Really?”

Zhu Ying had already reached the bedside.

The bed in this eastern room was not the kind of large enclosed canopy bed resembling a small house, so her tall figure did not need to bend down. Even so, she still leaned forward slightly.

As if afraid Zhang Shou was simply saying nice things to comfort her, she carefully examined him from head to toe for quite some time. Only after confirming he truly had no injuries did she finally let out a long breath of relief.

“Thank goodness you’re fine. You scared me to death!”

“Besides the two people Hua Uncle and I captured, there were actually other people in Zhao Garden involved. Some servants secretly colluded with outsiders during the yearly repairs, hiding rebels and installing those copper pipes to plot against us. Even the calming incense they sent you had something added to it!”

“If we hadn’t captured the rebels this time, Father wouldn’t have been able to clear his name even if he jumped into the Yellow River!”

At this point, Zhu Ying lowered her head.

“Although Uncle Hua repeatedly assured me that capturing them would be a great achievement, that all the credit would go to you, and that if you wanted promotion and wealth, you would have everything. He also said that A-Liu was following you, so there wouldn’t be any danger…”

“But I really didn’t want to agree. When I heard it might involve the Linhai Camp rebels, I wanted you to take the risk even less.”

“A-Shou, I’m sorry. I caused you to put yourself in danger…”

“Didn’t you just come over specifically to tell me what happened?”

Zhang Shou interrupted her and glanced at the moonlight outside the window before smiling at the girl in front of him.

“Besides, what Lord Hua Qi needed me to do and what I helped Lord Wang do are essentially the same thing. There was some danger, but it was within a controllable range.”

“Besides, I’ve spent every day at the Imperial Academy using my mouth and brain. Occasionally changing things up isn’t bad.”

“Tomorrow, I’ll definitely make A-Liu practice our Zhu family’s inherited sword techniques properly and have him teach you!”

Zhu Ying took a deep breath and gathered her courage.

“After something this serious happened… why don’t you move somewhere else?”

Zhang Shou was about to refuse, but when he saw the unmistakable blush on Zhu Ying’s face, he paused slightly.

Then he smiled.

“What? Are you planning to imitate your grandmother and have me move into the east or west wing of Autumn Refresh Studio so that I can live next to you in the main hall?”

“Back when I stayed at my house, there was no other choice. But things haven’t reached that point now.”

Seeing Zhu Ying glare at him angrily, as if annoyed that he had exposed her thoughts, Zhang Shou gently said: “Yingying, I’ve already taken a lot of advantage of you.”

“Although you don’t mind, and it is true that after being shot by an arrow once, everyone looks like an assassin to me, I’m not so paranoid that after the matter is resolved, I still remain frightened.”

“Don’t worry. Go back and sleep. A-Liu is here.”

“If you say so, then forget it.”

After saying this, Zhu Ying turned and left.

But when she reached the doorway, she stopped.

Without turning around, she softly said: “Also… thank you.”

Thank him for what?

For risking himself to act as bait?

Or for luring out the two rebels hiding in Zhao Garden and preventing the Zhao Duke Manor from suffering a major disaster?

Regardless, Zhang Shou felt that he was the one who should thank Zhu Ying.

Because without her, he would never have left that rural village, entered the capital, and truly seen the world of this era.

After sending Zhu Ying away with a few words, Zhang Shou himself had completely lost his sleepiness.

After instructing A-Liu to watch and make sure Zhu Ying had safely returned to Autumn Refresh Studio, he quickly got dressed, called A-Liu along, and the two quietly left into the night.

With A-Liu’s nose and ears sharper than a dog’s, Zhang Shou soon found Hua Qi in the northern Hengwu Courtyard.

There he saw this middle-aged man, who was likely a royal secret agent, sitting grandly in the main seat of the room.

On the ground were four people tied up.

Two of them were wearing Zhao Garden servant uniforms and looked completely defeated.

The other two had swollen faces and bruises all over. One still carried a vicious glare in his eyes, while the other looked frightened and timid.

“Oh? Young Master Zhang came to take a look at the person who threatened you?”

Hua Qi casually pointed at the terrified middle-aged man and chuckled.

“This fellow is the military advisor of Deputy General Xiao, who committed suicide in shame after the Linhai Camp rebellion.”

“Despite having passed the provincial examination and becoming a scholar, he was foolish enough to follow someone into rebellion.”

“After their rebellion failed, he still refused to give up and wanted to force the method of decoding the secret messages out of you.”

Zhang Shou glanced at the fierce-looking man glaring at him.

That should be the deputy general Hua Qi mentioned.

But Zhang Shou had no interest in this type of brute-force warrior.

Instead, he studied the so-called scholar military advisor with great interest.

Although Zhang Shou’s gaze contained no obvious hostility, Ma the Advisor felt as though Zhang Shou was a butcher examining a pig.

Calculating how much meat it had, where to cut first, and which piece to take afterward.

He had never actually seen someone slaughter a pig, yet he couldn’t help feeling this terrifying sensation.

Thinking about his current situation, he immediately shouted: “Young Master Zhang! Among those thirteen letters, the decoding method for twelve of them was leaked by some officials in the Ministry of War. That’s why General Liu and I came after you!”

“We weren’t after those twelve letters!”

“We wanted the remaining strange letter!”

Before Ma the Advisor could finish speaking, the fierce-looking Liu General suddenly became furious.

Even with his hands and feet tied, he violently slammed his head toward Ma.

But before he could hit him—

Hua Qi, who had been sitting with his eyes closed, suddenly appeared in front of him.

With one high kick, the huge muscular man was sent flying.

That wasn’t all.

A-Liu appeared near the doorway in an instant.

Before Liu General could land, the much thinner boy kicked him back.

Fortunately, Hua Qi clearly had no intention of playing soccer with A-Liu.

He simply stepped aside and returned to his seat calmly.

The massive man crashed onto the floor like a falling boulder.

Seeing the usually ferocious Liu General spitting blood from his mouth before immediately passing out, Ma Advisor sucked in a cold breath.

He no longer dared hide anything.

Like beans poured from a bamboo tube, he revealed everything.

“The person receiving the secret letters at Linhai Camp was Deputy General Xiao.”

“And normally, I was the one who translated the coded messages for him.”

“I calculated the meanings of those secret texts.”

Hua Qi’s expression suddenly changed slightly.

Zhang Shou was also greatly surprised.

But Ma Advisor did not dare raise his head, fearing he would see Hua Qi’s terrifying expression and die of fright.

“The most important letter involving the date… happened to not be calculated by me.”

“That day, I had severe diarrhea and was too weak to get out of bed.”

“So Deputy General Xiao, who had seen how I usually calculated them, did it himself.”

“He had studied before too. After calculating it, he showed it to me.”

“I thought it was probably correct, so he translated the coded message according to the Thousand Character Classic.”

“But in the end… he miscounted one character.”

When he mentioned that mistake, even though that unforgettable day had already passed, Ma Advisor’s expression still became gloomy.

“I was dragged onto the path of rebellion by Deputy General Xiao.”

“I was a provincial scholar. I never wanted to become his advisor.”

“But the essay I used in the provincial examination was copied.”

“He somehow discovered this and used it to threaten me…”

Before he could continue explaining his reasons for rebelling, Zhang Shou impatiently interrupted.

“Don’t go off-topic.”

“Did you invent that type of code?”

“And what exactly was wrong with that strange letter?”

Ma Advisor finally returned from his self-pity, but his expression remained miserable.

“The secret of the code was told to me by Deputy General Xiao. I don’t know where he learned it.”

“As for that strange letter, it was different from the previous ones. I couldn’t decipher it at all!”

“But the strange symbols on it, like children’s scribbles, were all from the Thousand Character Classic.”

“If I hadn’t spent three days staying up late trying to calculate it without success, and then fallen ill from eating bad food, that most important letter would never have been wrong.”

Zhang Shou was genuinely surprised.

He had never expected that letter, which he and his students believed was forged, and which Wang Daren later believed contained another hidden mystery, had actually appeared in the hands of the Linhai rebels.

They had even spent countless nights calculating it until their eyes blurred.

After pondering for a moment, Zhang Shou suddenly laughed.

“But I heard that during court that day, Lord Wang deciphered those secret letters and became the center of attention.”

“The contents of that letter should already have been made public, shouldn’t they?”

“Even if it wasn’t spread among ordinary people, it shouldn’t have been difficult to find out.”

“Why did you come looking for me?”

“Besides, the Linhai rebellion has already been suppressed. You are still chasing after that letter and even risking your lives for it.”

“Don’t you think that’s foolish?”

“Because the contents of the letter we heard about were completely wrong!”

Ma Advisor looked at Zhang Shou.

“And it was because that idiot Liu General believed Deputy General Xiao had been in Linhai Camp for years and embezzled countless amounts of money.”

“He thought that letter must contain a secret.”

“Maybe it involved the person Xiao had been working with.”

“Maybe it revealed where the gold and silver Xiao stole but where never found had gone.”

“If we figured it out, perhaps we would still have a chance to rise again!”

As he spoke, Ma Advisor looked at Zhang Shou and struggled to stand.

But with his hands and feet bound, he lost his balance and fell heavily forward.

Even after knocking out a tooth and bleeding from his mouth, he still shouted: “Doctor Zhang!”

“I am already half a dead man!”

“Please, tell me what was written in that letter!”

“Otherwise, even after descending into the Nine Hells, I will never rest in peace!”

Zhang Shou stared at him for a moment.

Then he smiled lightly.

“I don’t discuss academic matters with dying rebels.”

“If you still cannot rest after going to the Nine Hells…”

“Then continue calculating down there.”

Why should I satisfy your curiosity after you forced me to risk my life and spend an entire night dealing with this mess?

Seeing Zhang Shou leave with A-Liu, Hua Qi looked down at Ma Advisor’s pale face and suddenly laughed.

That answer…

Was truly excellent.

Even toward dying rebels, there was no need to show unnecessary compassion.